On January 22,
2004,
the owners of Pointe 705 filed a $7,600,000.00 claim
against the City
of Hermosa Beach. There was a long
story about
the claim in
the Easy Reader newspaper of March 18.

The following is the
cover sheet of the claim plus the
full text of Attachments
B and C. Warning: contains profanity and
ethnic slurs.

Editor's note:The
following is the full text of Attachments
B and C to Pointe 705's claim filed Jan. 22,
2004.The text below has been OCR'd from a
photocopy of the
filed original obtained from the office of the
Hermosa Beach City
Clerk.
The text presented below is an exact
word-for-word
duplicate of
the text of the original (and as a result
contains profanity and ethnic
slurs),
except that some confidential identifying
information has been replaced
by
"[xxx]" and the indication "[sic]"
(Webster's:
"...that an expression, spelling, or the like,
exactly reproduces the
original.") has been inserted where
appropriate.

CITY OF HERMOSA
BEACH
CLAIM FORM

ATTACHMENT B

QUESTION:How
did damage/loss/injury occur?

ANSWER:The first incident occurred on
September 20, 2003. Defendant Alkadis and
another officer employed by
Defendant
HBPD came into the club owned by Plaintiffs
(Point 705). The officers
spoke
with Plaintiff Cecil Roberts, Jr, who identified
himself as the new
owner, and
asked him if HBPD officers would continue to
receive food discounts as
they had
under the previous ownership. The officers then
left.

Later
that
night,
Defendants Alkadis and Averill came to the club
to speak with Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr. about a pool of soapy water that had formed
down the hill from
Point 705. A
promoter was hosting a foam party at the club
and the bag holding the
water
broke causing the water to run out onto the
street and down the hill.
Although
the promoter was in the process of cleaning up
the water, Defendants
threatened
to write a ticket for every car which squealed
as a result of the water.

When
Defendants
asked to
see Plaintiff Cecil Jr.’s identification, he
furnished his California
Drivers
License, #[xxxxxxxx], and informed them that,
his uncle, Plaintiff
Marvin Chul
Hur, was the only owner who’s [sic] name
appeared on the ABC liquor license.

Defendants
informed
Plaintiff
Cecil Jr. that he would be liable for the water
on the street
even
though the promoter took full responsibility.
Defendants also
threatened to
charge him with a felony carrying fines of "at
least $100,000.00.”
Defendant Averill repeatedly stated, “we don’t
like people like you in
my
town”. “we are going to close you down,” and “I
am going to do
everything to
shut you down.”

At
approximately
1:51
a.m., nearly three hours after arriving on the
scene, Defendant Averill
issued
a ticket to Plaintiff Cecil Jr. for illegal
discharge of waste. Averill
only cited
the promoters for failure to carry proper
documentation for the foam
machine.

At
approximately
2:50
a.m., Defendants falsely arrested Plaintiff
Cecil Jr. for false
identification
stemming from his earlier identification of
himself as an owner.
Plaintiff
Cecil Jr. was not Mirandized upon arrest, his
request to speak with an
attorney
was declined, and he was never informed of the
reason for his arrest.
Defendant
Averill placed Plaintiff Cecil Jr. in the back
of his squad car despite
the
fact that the police station was directly across
the street.

At
the
time of this
incident, Plaintiff Cecil Jr. had a seven and
one-half centimeter tumor
on his
brain that caused him to have severe seizures
when his blood pressure
was at an
elevated level. Plaintiff Cecil Sr. informed
Defendants of Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr.’s condition and asked them to have a
paramedic check on him because
he was
hunched over in the back of the squad car. This
request was denied.
Plaintiff
Cecil Sr. request to go check himself was also
denied.

Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr., in
fact, had a seizure while sitting in the squad
car and was awakened by
Defendant Averill poking him in the chest with
either an object or his
fingers
and pulling him out of the car. The next day,
Plaintiff Cecil Jr. had a
bruise
in that area. Additionally, while in custody,
Sergeant Averill
repeatedly
denied medical attention to Plaintiff Cecil Jr.
despite knowledge of
his
existing medical condition.

Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr.
never falsely identified himself; he presented
his true California
Driver’s
License and his family does, in fact, own the
establishment in
question. On
October 18, 2003, the charges were presented to
and dropped by the
District
Attorney. Notice was immediately given to the
Defendant Hermosa Beach
Police
Department, who were responsible for forwarding
the dismissal to
Plaintiffs.
Instead, Defendants waited until the day of the
hearing to mail the
notice to
Plaintiff Cecil Jr.’s home address in West
Hills, CA. Relying on the
information on the citation, Plaintiffs believed
that Cecil Jr. was
scheduled
to appear in court and retained a lawyer to
represent him in the
matter.
Obviously, the attorney could not find the
matter on any calendar.

After
this
incident,
Defendants have constantly watched Plaintiffs.
They park their police
vehicles
directly across the street in front of the Point
705. Additionally,
Defendants
have routinely stopped vehicles directly in
front of Point 705 and/or
have had
vehicles pull behind the club and into
Plaintiffs private parking
garage. This
harassment was done, and continues, to
intimidate Plaintiffs and the
scare the
patrons inside. Any onlooker would think that
police activity was
constantly
occurring at the club.

The
next
incident
occurred on October 26, 2003. The promoter
hosted a Hip Hop party and
most of
the patrons were African American. An
intoxicated patron was standing
on the
street in front of Point 705 trying to hail a
cab. Plaintiff Grace
Roberts
noticed him and immediately told her security to
get the man out of the
street
and help him get a cab. When the patron’s
friends saw the man, they
also
attempted to get him out of the street. On his
own, the man fell over
pulling
his friends and security to the ground with him.
As soon as they got
up,
Defendant Averill drove his car up to the front
of the club. At that
time,
Plaintiff Grace Roberts tried to explain to
Defendant Averill that the
situation was under control and the patron was
on his way home.
Defendant
Averill ignored her and instead began yelling
and screaming at her
saying that
he could smell marijuana “pouring from the
club.” Plaintiff Grace
Roberts
responded by telling him that there was no
marijuana in the club and
that he
could go in and check for himself.

Defendant
Averill
got on
the dispatch to call for additional officers and
informed Plaintiff
Grace
Roberts that he was going to “shut this place
down.” He told Plaintiff
Grace
that ever since she took over, the place was
“$hit.” Defendant Averill
advised
Grace to get rid of her patrons saying, “I don’t
like these
people...get rid of
them...get rid of these troubles...,” referring
to African Americans.
Within
minutes, five police cars arrived.

Defendants
entered
Point
705 and demanded to know the number of patrons
inside because the club
“looked
overcrowded.” They found no violation. Plaintiff
Cecil, Sr. asked
Defendants,
“why are you here?” and Defendant Averill
responded that he was there
“to
correct their attitudes.” He again stated that
this was his town and he
could
slap them with fines for a number of things.
Defendant Averill told
patrons
that if they did not shut up, they would be
arrested. HBPD officers
searched
Point 705 and did not smell or find any
marijuana.

Averill
loudly
instructed
Plaintiff Grace Roberts to turn down the music
saying, “do
it right
now or I’m going to write you up!” He continued,
saying “I don’t like
you.”
Plaintiff Grace Roberts told Defendant Averill
that he was being
prejudiced and
he responded that he hears that “$hit” all of
the time and it was not
going to
fly. Defendant Averill repeatedly patronized
Plaintiff Grace Roberts
when she
tried to talk. Defendant Averill further told
Plaintiff Grace Roberts
that he
did not have to be nice or courteous because he
was there to enforce
the laws
that she breaks. Defendant Averill told
Plaintiff Grace Roberts that
“the city
council hates bars and is going to shut them
down one by one,” and then
said
that he was going to “watch every move she made
and the next time, he
would
shut the club down for good.”

On
October
30, 2003, Plaintiffs
met with Hermosa Beach Police Chief Michael
Lavin, Captain Thomas
Eckert, and
Lieutenant Lance Jaakola to discuss the above
stated incidents. At this
meeting, each was put on notice of the behavior
of their subordinates.
Captain
Eckert repeatedly assured Plaintiffs that there
was “no conspiracy”
involved,
and that the behavior of their subordinates was
a product their
experiences
with other club owners who play “shell games.”
Chief Lavin promised to
investigate these incidents and guaranteed that
such incidents would
not occur
in the future.

The
latest
incident
occurred on December 21, 2003. The promoter
hosted a birthday party
where the
majority of the patrons were African American.
At approximately 10pm,
seven (7)
police officers came to Point 705 asking to walk
through because they
“heard
Point 705 has really good music.” The officers
parked their vehicles in
the
middle of the street directly outside of the
front of the club with
their
lights on.

Later
that
night,
Plaintiff Cecil Jr. arrived at the club. As soon
as he stepped outside
of the
club to speak with an employee, he was
approached by HBPD officers.
They told
him that they had received complaints of loud
music and wanted to go in
to
check it out. Plaintiff Cecil, Jr. told them
that the event was a
private party
closed to the public and the building was
locked. He further told the
officers
that he would tell the DJ to lower the volume.
Before the officers
left, one
opened up a small notebook filled with paper to
make notes. Both
Plaintiff Cecil
and an employee noticed that Plaintiff Cecil
Jr’s business card was
stapled to
the inside of the notebook.

That
night,
a fight
broke out in the club. The manager called the
police to assist in
getting
people out of the club. Although the station is
across the street, the
police
did not arrive immediately. By the time police
arrived, the fight was
over and
20-25 people were standing outside and/or
walking to their cars.

Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr.
recognized Defendant Phillips and approached him
to tell him what was
going on
and point out which persons were responsible.
Defendant Phillips
responded
saying “get the fu#k out of my face” and [sic]
“get the fu#k out of my
face.”
“What part of stand back don’t you understand?”
Defendant Phillips then
pushed
Plaintiff Cecil Jr. knocking the wind out of
him. A witness (Security
guard
Cyrus Keshmiri) stated that the officer “drew
his baton and struck
Plaintiff
Cecil Jr. in the chest very forcefully.” When
Plaintiff Cecil Jr.
responded
asking the officer “what is your problem?”,
Defendant Phillips grabbed
Plaintiff Cecil Jr.’s arm.

Meanwhile,
another
officer
motioned for Plaintiff Cecil Jr. to come to him
and tell him
what was
going on. Plaintiff Cecil Jr. asked what was
Defendant Phillips’
problem and he
told Plaintiff Cecil Jr. that it was “his fault
because he brought
these people
to this town.”

Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr. went
back inside the club fearful after being further
assaulted by Defendant
Phillips. His blood pressure went up and he
immediately had to take
400mg of
Dilantin. At this point, someone called “911” to
request help for
Plaintiff
Cecil Jr., but instead of the fire department or
paramedics, more
police
officers arrived. Shortly after going back into
the club, Cecil heard
that
there might be another fight in the parking lot.
When he got outside,
he saw
Plaintiff Grace Roberts yelling at the HBPD
police officers. Six HBPD
police
officers grabbed a young African American woman,
threw her to the
ground, and
hit her with batons and kicked her with their
feet while she was on the
ground.
They handcuffed her and put her in the squad
car, but she was later
released.

Plaintiff
Grace
Roberts
witnessed the attack and went outside to tell
the officers to stop. She
yelled
to them, “stop, you are going to kill her.”
Defendant Alkadis
approached
Plaintiff Grace Roberts and told her that she
“knows what the problem
is”, “you
bring these ni##ers here”, “you bring these
people to our town.”

In
light
of what already
happened and his recent surgery, Plaintiff Cecil
Jr. was scared to go
into the
parking garage where the HBPD officers were.
However, when he saw
Defendant
Alkadis yelling at and in the face of Plaintiff
Grace Roberts, he went
over to try
to get his mom back inside of Point 705.

Plaintiff
Cecil
Jr.
asked Defendant Alkadis what the problem was and
he said “you brought
these
people to this town.” He told Plaintiffs Cecil
Jr. and Grace Roberts
that they
were “irresponsible” and they “don’t know how to
run this place” and
then
called them “ni##er lovers”. When Plaintiff
Cecil Jr. told Defendant
Alkadis
that he could not talk to them like that,
Defendant Alkadis responded
“what are
you going to do about it?” “I don’t care what
happened to you,” “I
don’t care
about your condition,” “you want me to arrest
you again?”

Plaintiff
Grace
Roberts,
fearing for Plaintiff Cecil Jr.’s safety, began
pulled him back towards
Point 705.
Defendant Alkadis continued to provoke Cecil,
saying “turn around and
walk
away”, “what are you going to do?” In fact,
several officers tried to
hold
Defendant Alkadis back. A witness stated that
the body language, tone
and
things said by the HBPD officers seemed more
like a gang calling some
one out
for a fight.

Cecil
went
to
the emergency room where he was diagnosed as
having a chest wall
contusion
caused by a bruise on his chest.

That
same
night, someone
knocked over a container holding used oil that
was left outside for
disposal by
another business owner. The police told that
owner that Point 705 had a
“riot”
and “gang fight," saying that they were
responsible for the oil spill.
Defendant further spread rumors about the “riot”
throughout the
community and
someone reported it to Plaintiff’s landlord.

Chief
Lavin,
Captain Eckert
and Lieutenant Jaakola were put on notice of the
behavior of their
subordinate
officers and their inaction and failure to
properly reprimand them
constituted
a ratification of said behavior.

CITY OF HERMOSA
BEACH
CLAIM FORM

ATTACHMENT C

QUESTION:What particular act or omission
do you claim caused the damage/loss/injury?